What about DAB sound quality in-car?

Radio listening in-car is extremely popular accounting for around 24% of all listening.

Cars usually have a number of speakers creating a natural stereo listening experience. Broadcasters decide how to broadcast their stations based on a number of factors including cost, the type of content being broadcast, available broadcast space and the need to offer a wide choice of stations for listeners.

Local and national digital stations are broadcast in a range of different ways with differences in bit-rates and in choosing either mono or stereo. Please see table below.

Although a station being broadcast in mono may be more apparent in the car due to the presence of multiple speakers than in the home, the sound quality of DAB remains the most popular benefit of digital radio in the car.

Digital radio is continuing to grow in popularity across the UK and particularly in-car, where the additional choice of stations and availability of DAB either as standard or as a conversion option has helped to grow digital listening in-car from 1% to 20% in the last 5 years.

For further information please contact us here.

Table showing stereo and mono variations by station:

Genre Stereo/Mono Station name Region
Culture Stereo BBC Radio 3 National
Easy Listening Stereo Gold Manchester Manchester
Stereo Smooth Radio Manchester
Mono Magic UK National
Mono Smooth Extra National
News Mono BBC Radio 5 Live National
Other Music Stereo BBC Radio 1Xtra National
Mono Asian Sound Manchester
Pop Music Stereo BBC Radio 1 National
Stereo BBC Radio 2 National
Stereo Capital Manchester
Stereo Capital XTRA National
Stereo Heart North West Manchester
Stereo Key 103 Manchester
Stereo Key 2 Manchester
Mono Absolute R 80s National
Mono Absolute Rad 90s Manchester
Mono BFBS Radio National
Mono heat radio Manchester
Mono Key 3 Manchester
Mono KISS National
Religion Mono UCB UK Christian National
Rock Music Stereo BBC Radio 6Music National
Mono Absolute Radio National
Mono Planet Rock National
Mono Radio X National
Classical Stereo Classic FM National
Sport Mono BBC R5LiveSportX National
Mono talkSPORT National
Varied Speech Stereo BBC R.Manchester Manchester
Mono BBC AsianNetwork National
Mono BBC Radio 4 National
Mono BBC Radio 4Extra National
Mono LBC National